PAX Unplugged - The Arrival and Day 1
- Tyler Lance
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
This will be the first of a series of days as I will walk you through some of the games that I played, my thoughts on them, and the overall excitement that I had throughout all three days I was in Philly for PAX Unplugged.
Let's dive in right away with the shocking item of it all, as this was my first time attending PAX Unplugged!
The Arrival
This may have been the longest day of them all, as I woke up at 3 am on Thursday to get to the airport at 4 am. This marked the start of the waiting time at a couple of different airports, as I also spent nearly 5 hours in St. Louis waiting to finally depart for Philadelphia.
Don't worry, though, there were several games played while at the airport! And Button Shy Games led the way with what was played at the airport. These consisted of one of my favorite Button Shy published games in Numbsters, as well as A Nice Cuppa.
My favorite part about Button Shy games is that they can travel with you wherever you go, and take up a small space, actually, to play. Before PAX happened, Numbsters was my favorite Button Shy game that I've played, simply because you can play the game in one hand! What better game to play on an airplane or at an airport than one that can be held in your hand?
The day of gaming didn't end there once I finally got to the hotel, no more than 2 minutes from the convention center. I met up with the amazing folks from Tabletop Express, Chris and Anthony, as well as DrJ, whom I met through the TTE discord. They were playing a game of Sea, Salt and Paper, but we quickly got into a series of games that I joined in afterwards.
The games were light, consisting of Trio and Flip 7, before we split up for a bit to grab some food and ensure I had my first experience at Reading Terminal Market. I just want to add a quick note here, but the food here is phenomenal, and I only got to experience two different food spots inside. RTM is a must for anyone traveling to PAX Unplugged!
Let's get back to some gaming, though, as the night didn't end after dinner. There was some Cribbage taught in the hotel room, and it was great to teach folks how to play a game taught to me by my parents. Especially since one of those people I taught Cribbage to was Comic Book Yeti's very own, Dan Nixon. This is a staple of my board gaming experiences that I'll always go back to.
More games were played throughout the night, but the night ended with a game of my #1 trick taker currently(and the foreseeable future), Rebel Princess. This game is a spin on the game Hearts with some flavor to make the 5 rounds challenging, to say the least. Rebel Princess does have an expansion, and I regularly play with it now.
Day 1 ($$)
I'm just going to start the recap of day 1 and the weekend in general by saying there are way too many games played or seen to talk about them all!
After a filling breakfast, we went right over to the convention hall and walked around. The beginning of the day was meant to walk through the hall and find those hidden gems.
Doc and I made our way through the hall, snagging some gems that I've since played. Some of those games include the following:
Jingle Bell Roll from Chris Couch Games
Hercules and the 12 Labors from Envy Born Games
Mythical Dice from IELLO
And SO many Button Shy Games
The Last Lighthouse
Food Chain Island
The Royal Limited
The biggest part of Day One that I want to share is the games that surprised me the most because they were just THAT good.
Crokinole - Sure, this has been around forever, since the late 1800s, but this was a must for me to play on my weekend at PAX as it was my first playing this classic.
Seashells - This was quite possibly my favorite set collection from the weekend, and I was lucky to be able to play this before it releases in 2026
3 Witches - a 3-player trick taker that, in my opinion, is a MUST have for your collection. I was disappointed it sold out on day 1 of PAX, but I just got my copy, and it will be played quite a bit in the very near future
Overall, it was a good haul on day 1 that would only be added to in the next two days!
Day 1 didn't let me down, and it only got better throughout the weekend! Stay tuned as Day 2 will be shared soon, followed by Day 3!
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